ABSTRACT
By 1985, the FARC was running on all cylinders. Its top commanders were talking peace with the government of President Belisario Betancur. Its Fronts were organizing the UP in small villages and midsize towns, and guerrilla leaders were starting to make headway in the big cities. It had taken a long time, but the FARC was finally working in Bogotá, and rebel commander Jacobo Arenas was plotting his return to the capital, or so everyone believed. Arenas was to be the UP’s presidential candidate, and the mere possibility that he would be campaigning in Bogotá was enough to prove, even to the skeptics, that the new party was a path to peace.
